Texas, USA 2010 - International Herbage Seed Group
Texas, USA 2010 - International Herbage Seed Group Texas, USA 2010 - International Herbage Seed Group
On-farm conversion of straw to bioenergy – A value added solution to grassseed residueG.W. Mueller-Warrant, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Email: muellerg@onid.orst.eduG.M. Banowetz, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Email: banowetg@onid.orst.eduG.R. Whittaker, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Email: whittakg@onid.orst.eduH.M. El-Nashaar, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Email: elnashah@onid.orst.eduAbstractAnalysis of the geospatial distribution of straw from grass seed and cereal crops across the PNWindicates that optimally-sited bioenergy conversion plants of 1 million kg y -1 capacity should beable to obtain needed straw from within a radius of a very few km, opening up the possibility ofusing farm-scale equipment such as forage choppers, wagons, silage blowers, and bunkers tohandle the straw from field to syn-gas generator. The economic advantages of not needing tobale and truck the straw long distances will at least partially offset efficiencies of scale likelypresent in larger plants operating at many times the capacity of farm-scale units.Perhaps the most contentious aspect of intensive grass seed production systems has been themanagement of post-harvest residues. Conflicts over possible adverse effects of smoke fromfield burning on human health and economic impacts of regulating burning on the grass seedindustry have raged in courtrooms, legislatures, elections, and the mass media for decades.Because use of burning to dispose of grass seed and cereal straw throughout the PacificNorthwest (PNW) is now banned or restricted in most areas, agricultural producers have activelysought cost-effective alternatives. In higher rainfall regimes such as Oregon‟s Willamette Valley,thorough chopping of the full straw load in the dry, late summer facilitates its decompostion inthe wet fall and winter while remaining compatible with high yields of quality seed. Growersusing this method view retention of nutrients and building of soil OM as adequate trade-offs forthe nuisance of chopping straw and increased problems with slugs and weeds. Other growersbale their residues for domestic use and overseas export as livestock feed, often receiving littlemore than the cost of baling. In collaboration with partners including the electrical powerindustry, researchers at the National Forage Seed Production Research Center have built a pilotplant in Spokane for conversion of straw to syn-gas, which can then generate electricity fed backinto the regional power grid. The nominal size of the plant is 1 million kg y -1 , comparable tostraw produced on medium-sized PNW grass seed or cereal farms. Testing of the syn-gasgenerator is focusing on the impact of operating conditions on CO and H 2 content of the syn-gasand on impurities in it that could damage the diesel engine powering the electrical generator.Knowledge of the geospatial distribution of straw from grass seed and cereal production in thePNW is vital to the accuracy and reliability of feasibility studies comparing scales of operationof proposed bioenergy conversion plants. Because existing data on straw availability werelimited to county-wide summaries, our first step in identifying optimum locations for straw-43
ased bioenergy conversion plants was to map the location of all grass seed and cerealproduction in the PNW using remote sensing methods. For satellite imagery necessary for remotesensing classification, we used MODIS 16-day composite NDVI, 250 m by 250 m pixels,covering the periods from April 23 through August 29 in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Crop areas andyields per ha within counties were obtained from yearly USDA-NASS summary statistics forwinter, spring, and durum wheat, barley, and oats. Areas and yields per ha for grass seed cropswere primarily obtained from OSU Extension Service estimates within Oregon and USDA-NASS summaries in Idaho and Washington. Ground-truth data for the remote sensingclassifications of cereals were derived from USDA-NASS National Crop Land Data layers(NLCD) covering southern Idaho in 2005, Washington in 2006, and the entire PNW in 2007.Ground-truth data for grass seed crops were a mixture of our in-house, western Oregon GIS andthe NLCD. Maps of crop locations were converted into straw yields by use of county-wideaverage crop yields and harvest indices, and then subtracting crop-specific estimates of residuerequirements to protect soils from erosion. Larger quantities of straw were “left behind in thefield” for annual crops such as winter wheat or Italian ryegrass than for perennial grasses whosecrowns and roots help protect the undisturbed soil from erosion.Our estimates of total available cereal and grass seed straw in the PNW were 7.01, 6.27, and 5.63million metric tons in 2005, 2006, and 2007. We used the individual year estimates and multiyearaverages of available straw in procedures that identified the optimal locations for each newbioenergy plant, based on local density of straw and location of all previously sited plants. Eachnew plant was sited at the position of the maximum straw density over a neighborhood adequateto supply all the straw needed for plants with capacities of 1, 10, and 100 million kg y -1 . Strawassigned to each new plant was then removed from the raster and the location of the maximumdensity of remaining straw recalculated.Approximately 6,200 farm-scale plants (1 million kg straw y -1 capacity) distributed acrosslandscape would be required to convert all the available straw in the PNW into bioenergy.Approximately 620 medium-sized plants (10 times greater capacity than the farm-scale units)would be needed to process all the available straw (Fig. 1). The first 10 million kg y -1 plant builtcould obtain all its straw from within a distance of only 2 km, while the 124 th plant (20% of 620)would only need a range of 4 km to meet its needs. Relative to the average distance required tosupply straw to the first 10% of plants, a range of twice that distance was sufficient for 70% ofthe smallest sized plants, and 60% of the medium- and largest-sized ones. The final 10-20% ofstraw is extremely hard to justify going after for all plant sizes. Locations of the most easilysupplied plants clearly show the regions across the PNW where a straw-based bioenergy industryis likely to initially develop. Maps of the 6,200 smallest-sized plants tend to show a moreegalitarian distribution of optimal locations across all production areas in the PNW. In contrast,the strongest regional differences in how far straw would have to be transported occurred for thelargest-sized plants. Distribution of the 62 largest (100 million kg y -1 ) capacity plants (Fig. 2)differed somewhat from that of the medium capacity plants (Fig. 1), with the best 20% of sites44
- Page 3 and 4: Table of ContentsORAL PRESENTATIONS
- Page 5 and 6: Seed yield components and yield per
- Page 7 and 8: International Herbage Seed Conferen
- Page 9 and 10: 16:15 - 16:30 Reliability of salini
- Page 11 and 12: Hotel expense is covered for night
- Page 13 and 14: 40,000 were slaves (McDonald, 2007)
- Page 15 and 16: Fig. 1. Texas AgriLife Research and
- Page 17 and 18: $7 billion for cattle, $3 billion f
- Page 19 and 20: principle and encourages both AgriL
- Page 21 and 22: eceived by growers, the above perce
- Page 23 and 24: seed conditioning plants are locate
- Page 25 and 26: Table 4.Hectares of open-field burn
- Page 27 and 28: system, a seed crop is produced fro
- Page 29 and 30: Fig. 1. Land resource areas of Texa
- Page 31 and 32: y land owners. Seed yields are low
- Page 33 and 34: The influence of planting density o
- Page 35 and 36: Simple correlation and regression a
- Page 37 and 38: Variation in seed shattering in a g
- Page 39 and 40: Seed retention (SR) was calculated
- Page 41 and 42: mm160120Precipitation8040020Km h -1
- Page 43 and 44: Young, B. A. (1986). A Source of Re
- Page 45 and 46: Several methods are commonly used f
- Page 47 and 48: Table 3. Effect of the length of ha
- Page 49 and 50: Alfalfa seed production in semi-hum
- Page 51 and 52: Rather near the meteorological stat
- Page 53: ReferencesBolaños-Aguilar E.D., Hu
- Page 57 and 58: Table 1. Average distances required
- Page 59 and 60: Figure 1. Optimized locations for 1
- Page 61 and 62: Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne
- Page 63 and 64: Relative Seed Yieldsingle composite
- Page 65 and 66: Flowers, M.D.; Hart, J.M.; Young II
- Page 67 and 68: Thus, similar to tissue tests, remo
- Page 69 and 70: Conclusion:Perhaps our most importa
- Page 71 and 72: Modelling critical NDVI curves in p
- Page 73 and 74: The five spectral reflectance measu
- Page 75 and 76: Harvest loss in ryegrass seed crops
- Page 77 and 78: Larger than expected harvest losses
- Page 79 and 80: Rolston, P.; Trethewey, J.; McCloy,
- Page 81 and 82: Optical sensors have the potential
- Page 83 and 84: Figure 2. Seed yield response to ap
- Page 85 and 86: Flowers, M. D., Hart, J.M., Young I
- Page 87 and 88: In 2010, France has launched the fo
- Page 89 and 90: Yield (% maximum)ConclusionThe resu
- Page 91 and 92: Plant N uptakeN unavailableSoil nit
- Page 93 and 94: Stresses associated with germinatio
- Page 95 and 96: correspond to electrical conductivi
- Page 97 and 98: applied later in the fall was more
- Page 99 and 100: Figure 2. Establishment of five ove
- Page 101 and 102: The seed vigour testing was perform
- Page 103 and 104: Table 1. Germination index (GI) for
ased bioenergy conversion plants was to map the location of all grass seed and cerealproduction in the PNW using remote sensing methods. For satellite imagery necessary for remotesensing classification, we used MODIS 16-day composite NDVI, 250 m by 250 m pixels,covering the periods from April 23 through August 29 in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Crop areas andyields per ha within counties were obtained from yearly USDA-NASS summary statistics forwinter, spring, and durum wheat, barley, and oats. Areas and yields per ha for grass seed cropswere primarily obtained from OSU Extension Service estimates within Oregon and USDA-NASS summaries in Idaho and Washington. Ground-truth data for the remote sensingclassifications of cereals were derived from USDA-NASS National Crop Land Data layers(NLCD) covering southern Idaho in 2005, Washington in 2006, and the entire PNW in 2007.Ground-truth data for grass seed crops were a mixture of our in-house, western Oregon GIS andthe NLCD. Maps of crop locations were converted into straw yields by use of county-wideaverage crop yields and harvest indices, and then subtracting crop-specific estimates of residuerequirements to protect soils from erosion. Larger quantities of straw were “left behind in thefield” for annual crops such as winter wheat or Italian ryegrass than for perennial grasses whosecrowns and roots help protect the undisturbed soil from erosion.Our estimates of total available cereal and grass seed straw in the PNW were 7.01, 6.27, and 5.63million metric tons in 2005, 2006, and 2007. We used the individual year estimates and multiyearaverages of available straw in procedures that identified the optimal locations for each newbioenergy plant, based on local density of straw and location of all previously sited plants. Eachnew plant was sited at the position of the maximum straw density over a neighborhood adequateto supply all the straw needed for plants with capacities of 1, 10, and 100 million kg y -1 . Strawassigned to each new plant was then removed from the raster and the location of the maximumdensity of remaining straw recalculated.Approximately 6,200 farm-scale plants (1 million kg straw y -1 capacity) distributed acrosslandscape would be required to convert all the available straw in the PNW into bioenergy.Approximately 620 medium-sized plants (10 times greater capacity than the farm-scale units)would be needed to process all the available straw (Fig. 1). The first 10 million kg y -1 plant builtcould obtain all its straw from within a distance of only 2 km, while the 124 th plant (20% of 620)would only need a range of 4 km to meet its needs. Relative to the average distance required tosupply straw to the first 10% of plants, a range of twice that distance was sufficient for 70% ofthe smallest sized plants, and 60% of the medium- and largest-sized ones. The final 10-20% ofstraw is extremely hard to justify going after for all plant sizes. Locations of the most easilysupplied plants clearly show the regions across the PNW where a straw-based bioenergy industryis likely to initially develop. Maps of the 6,200 smallest-sized plants tend to show a moreegalitarian distribution of optimal locations across all production areas in the PNW. In contrast,the strongest regional differences in how far straw would have to be transported occurred for thelargest-sized plants. Distribution of the 62 largest (100 million kg y -1 ) capacity plants (Fig. 2)differed somewhat from that of the medium capacity plants (Fig. 1), with the best 20% of sites44